Internet Terminology

ARPANET: Advanced Research Projects Network, the precursor of today's Internet. Developed by Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN), the first packet-switched ARPAnet link connected the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in November, 1969. Other Defense Contractor and research sites were added to ARPAnet, while non-military TCP/IP-based networks evolved independently. Eventually, ARPAnet linked with other networks, creating the Internet. ARPAnet was formally retired in 1990.

ATM: Asynchronous Transfer Mode. An international standard for cell relay established by the ITU-I. Multiple service types (voice, data, video) are conveyed in small, fixed-sized cells.

bps: Bits Per Second, A measurement of data transfer speed.

BGP: Boarder Gateway Protocol Version 4, an interdomain routing protocol that more efficiently distributes packets between independent networks than the older EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol).

CGI: Common Gateway Interface, an Application Program Interface (API) native to the UNIX operating system which allows a Web server to pass data from HTML document to a CGI script, which runs various programs as necessary and returns resulting data for display over the Web.

CIDR: Classless interdomain routing, a technique supported by BGP-4 that allows routers to group routes together in order to reduce the amount of routing information overhead. With CIDR, several IP networks' traffic appears to networks outside the group as a single, large entity.

COM port: Serial ports on the IBM PC compatible computer, usually, but not always used for data communications, are referred to by systems designators COM1, COM2, COM3.....etc.

cps: Characters Per Second - characters usually referring to a single 8-bit byte of data. With start and stop bits, a total transmission of 10 data bits is usually required to transmit a single character or data byte.

CSU/DSU: Customer Service Unit/Digital Service Unit. A hardware device that provides a digital interface to high-speed leased lines (see T1). Looks and acts like a modem, also referred to as a "digital modem". However, CSU/DSU does not MODulate or DEModule analog (voice) signals, it deals with digital signals from end to end.

DNS: Domain Name Server, a two-column look-up table system of matching mnemonic machine names such as, www.hawkpci.net, to their numeric IP addresses. The tables are maintained at local, regional and global levels by various organizations, making it easier for people to find their way around the Internet or their LAN.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, a file established for many public discussion groups containing questions and answers new callers often ask.

FDDI: Fiber Distributed Interface, an ANSI standard defining a 100-Mps token-passing network using fiber optic cable. Transmission distance may be up to 2 km without repeaters.

FIX: Federal Internet Exchange, a network of exchange points that interconnect federal government networks.

Frame Relay: A protocol used between user devices (such as hosts and routers) and network equipment (such as switching nodes).

FTP: File Transfer Protocol, and application program that uses TCP/IP internetworks as a medium for transferring files. You can logon to an ftp site using an ftp program and transfer files from their site to your local desktop using GET command. Many sites allow ANONYMOUS ftp. At the login prompt, enter ANONYMOUS as the login name, and at the password prompt enter your e-mail address as password. You will have access to a limited number of public directories from which you can retrieve files.

Home Page: The top level hypertext document in a collection of linked HTML documents. Often, the document implied in a WWW site's URL. For example: http://www.allstar.net/ will lead you to the "home page" of Allstar Internet Services, the first page that comes up on your screen.

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language, the programming language used to create WWW pages and define the functions to be performed when one clicks on the button, image or hypertext link embedded in the page.

HTTP: Hyper Text Transport Protocol. The method by which the World Wide Web provides hypertext links between web pages, often located on entirely different machines.

ICMP: Internet Control Message Protocol, a network layer of Internet protocol that provides message packets to report errors and other IP packet processing information. Commonly known as PING.

IP: Internet Protocol. The underlying packet protocol used to connect networks over the Internet.

ISP: Internet Service Provider, an online provider of Internet Services. Hawk Internet Services is an ISP.

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network, an all digital telephone system specification. Basic Rate Interface (BRI) consists of two 64 Kbps bearers or "B" data channels and one 16 Kbps supervisory "D" channel, leading to the designation "2B+D". BRI ISDN can deliver data to the home at speeds up to 128 Kbps by combining the two B channels and is the only digital telephone solution capable of using existing copper wire to the home.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group, a standard for compressing digital photographic images.

KB: Kilobyte, 1024 bytes, often generically applied to 1000 bytes as well.

Kbps: Kilo Bits Per Second, a measure of data transmission speed indicating 1024 bits transmitted in one second.

LEC: Local Exchange Carrier; local telephone company.

Mbps: Mega Bits Per Second, a measurement of data transmission speed indicating 1024 kilobits per second or 1048576 bits per second.

MB: Megabyte, technically 1024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes, often applied to the more rounded term of one million bytes as well.

MBONE: Multicast Backbone on the Internet, a popular network for real-time audio and video application. IP-Multicast is the class-D addressing scheme in IP. IP Multicast-based routing facilitates distributed applications to achieve time-critical "real-time" communications over wide area IP networks through lightweight, highly threaded model of communication. http://www.mbone.com/techinfo/

MPEG: Motion Picture Experts Groups, a standard for compressing digital video images.

NAP: Network Access Point, one of four primary connections to the Internet designated by the National Science Foundation to provide connections to Regional Network Providers and Network Service Providers, which in turn provide connections to smaller entities.

NNTP: Net News Transfer Protocol, a protocol used to transfer USENET News Groups from one Internet Site to another via Internet Protocol.

NSP: National (Internet) Service Provider, an ISP which services a nationwide market with POPs in most metropolitan areas.

NTP: Network Time Protocol, a TCP/IP protocol which allows a user's computer clock to be synchronized with the network clock.

Ping: An application program that will tell you if a particular entity is presently connected to the Internet. Useful in diagnosing connection problems.

PRI: Primary Rate Interface, a set of 24 ISDN channels

POP: Point of Presence, in the telephone world this is the geographical location of a particular switch or service.

POP3: Post Office Protocol, an alternative mail protocol used to service intermittent dialup connections to the Internet whereby mail is held until the caller makes the connection and requests mail. Most SLIP or PPP dialup account users will receive mail from a POP3 account using a program, such as Microsoft Outlook Express.

PPP: Point to Point Protocol, a type of Internet protocol used via serial connections by modem. A dialup connection providing IP connectivity.

Protocol: A system of rules and procedures governing communications between two devices. File transfer protocols in your communications program refer to a set of rules governing how error checking will be performed on blocks of data.

RBOC: Regional Bell Operating Company, a provider of local telephone service such as Pacific Bell or General Telephone.

RFC: Request For Comments, one of a series of formal documents edited and managed by the IAB. RFCs are the primary means of communicating information about the Internet, its technical standards and protocols, its history and culture.

Router: A device that connects two or more networks, such as a LAN in Seattle and and ours in Fort Worth, at the network layer.

SERVER: A computer dedicated to providing specific services to client computer. Print servers, for example, do nothing but accept, store, and print out jobs sent to them by other computers.

SLIP: Serial Line Internet Protocol, an implementation of IP over serial ports/modems, usually on an intermittent dialup basis. Developed by Rick Adams of UUNET Technologies, SLIP is a predecessor of the Point to Point Protocol (PPP) also used for dialup IP connections.

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, the most common method for relaying electronic mail over the Internet.

T1: A special type of digital, low error connection designed for high-bandwidth communications.  A T1 line is a standard telecom bundling capability with a very high throughput capacity of 1.51 to 1.54 Megabits/sec. It carries 23, 64-bit lines voice grade lines in one bundle.  You can also bind several T1s together for even higher speeds.

TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The basic packet protocol used to connect machines globally on the Internet is referred to as the Internet Protocol or IP. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) interacts with IP to provide an application protocol interface.

UDP: User Datagram Protocol, part of the IP family of protocols. UDP adds reliability and multiplexing to IP datagrams.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator, a system of references to different Internet sites indicating both the site and type of protocol or application program used to reach it. Example: E-mail, ftp, gopher, http, etc... http://www.hawkpci.net.

USENET: Users Network, one of the earliest networks of computers which participate in conferences via the Internet using UUCP and NNTP. Properly capitalized in full but often rendered as "Usenet".

WAN: Wide Area Network, a network typically spanning inter-city distances.

WINSOCK: A Dynamic Link Library (DDL) program for Microsoft Windows that provides a simple program interface to TCP/IP services. It has become the model for most Windows based Internet application programs.

WWW: World Wide Web, a global network of geographical servers linked by the Internet offering graphics, text, sound, video clips, and may other interactive application items.